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Story Notes:

This is a total rewrite of my first ever size story, which luckily isn't awailable online. It was also never written in English before now, so it'll be a fun experiment to see if I can translate it, unlike my other stories that are written in English from the beginning. I'm really happy for all the hints I can get on how to improve my writing.

- "Jamie was also excited to hear about you coming home."
- "Jamie?"
- "You haven't forgotten about her I hope? Daniels little sister..."
- "No, no of course I haven't forgotten her... I just didn't get why you told her."
- "She asked if you were coming for my 60th birthday, and I told her. I didn't know it was a secret."
- "No mom, it's not a secret... It just slipped my mind that she helps you out on the farm... Of course you talk. I just thought for a moment that you told everyone you met that I'm coming home."
- "Well can't I? I'm glad that you do, and I like to share when I'm glad. After all, it's been eight years since you were here."
- "Of course you can tell who ever you want. I just thought people didn't care."
- "You've been away for too long dear... This is not the city where no one cares. It's a small town where everybody knows everyone. And you are practically a celebrity here. The one that got away." Mom snickered as she said the last part. That nervous laugh she'd get whenever she talked about me leaving. An inner conflict she had, pride over me stepping out and taking my place in the world, and sadness that I found the rest of the world more exciting than her little corner.
- "Speaking of getting away... I have to go mom. We're taking off soon so I need to do some pre flight procedures."
- "You do that and I'll see you next week. Love you, bye."

Mom did not know that I was already headed home. I was going to surprise her. My boss was very understanding and gave me an extra week off. "Family deserves quality time." he said when I mentioned that I was going to visit my mom for her 60th birthday. He was headed for a conference and I was supposed to fly him there, and that would be my last shift for two weeks. After that I had an 18 hour drive home. I really grew up in nowhere. 18 hours to the closest commercial airport. What a joke. There were smaller airports out there so technically I could land 20 minutes from home, but I had no plane of my own to fly there, and the bosses private jet was out of the question. I had seen the bills he pays for fuel to that thing, not to mention all the maintainance. But I could not complain. He had given me an extra week so I could take the travel times.

A nice thing about having a big shot boss is that I don't have to take care of the plane all of the time. After landing the local staff takes over and I only need to grab my bag and head for a place that would rent me a car. Lucky for me they also had bikes. I'm not that picky I tell them, so I get a Harley knock off. "Great milage and a comfortable ride." they told me as they handed me the keys. They didn't lie. It was a very smooth ride, but the sound wasn't really all that impressive. It was however getting dark fast by now, so shelter seemed like a good idea. I pulled up to an old barn and made myself comfortable in the hay. Most people round here don't really mind as long as you leave things the way you found them. When I left the next morning I saw a donation box on the way out. Seemed like a bit too much, to ask for a donation for providing hay. I changed my mind however when I found a breakfast tray by the bike with a sandwich, a thermos of coffee and a couple of boiled eggs. I ate my breakfast and put a generous donation in the box before I left.

This might be nowhere, but it's damned pretty. That is why I chose a bike instead of a car. You get more precense like this, a sense of adventure. The wind rushing around you and the motor humming, really leaning into the curves and work the road. A car would take most of the awareness away. You'd probably blast the stereo and just drive. Autopilot. I get enough of that at work. I used to ride horses as a kid. How could I not when mom raises them? Mom and dad always rode, and when I was old enough to walk, they thought I was old enough to ride, which I did. Until I was 16 and one of mothers horses threw me off. I was a long way from home. I was checking out some trails when something startled that moronic stallion. I don't know what happened exactly, but I sprained my back which paralyzed me from the waist down and I could not move. I was riding alone on unkown trails, before cellphones were common. It took someone two days to find me. Jamie was that someone. I could never forget Jamie. She was the only one looking for me. I guess that was my own fault. I used to just take a horse and ride away for a couple of days, and my parents trusted me since I was an experienced rider. As they say, hindsight is 20 20, and I should probably have taken someone with me, but being 16 and thinking you know everything you don't really consider everything that could actually scare a horse. Jamie however knew that I would not be coming back unless she looked for me. Eight years old and the most stubborn girl in town. She went on a quest to find me even though everyone told her I was fine, and when she did find me she carried me back to town. How a small girl like that could carry a young woman twice her age has always illuded me. I remember wrapping my arms around her neck and riding her back, but I was pretty out of it not having eaten properly for that long. I was probably dehydrated as well. That is the last memory I have of riding something living. I never got back on a horse again, even though my injuries turned out to be insignificant. My spine had not been damaged and I regained full mobility after a week when the swelling went down. I just didn't trust horses anymore. That's when dad got me a bike, and I felt right at home. The machine was an extention of me without the will of a horse, but the ride was similar of sorts. It just felt right, especially after the stallion was found dead with no apparent reason for it. A vet concluded that he had run himself to death right after throwing me off. Stupid animal.

Just about as I was pulling up on moms driveway it started to rain. I decided to put the bike in the garage. The last time I was here it was cramped. Two cars and a tractor. But now there was only one car left. A pick up truck that my father used to drive around all the time. We always refered to them as moms car or dads car. Both mother and I was surpised when mom sold her car to keep the pick up. "It is more practical." Perhaps it was her way to keep dad around a bit longer. Out of habit I put the bike up against the wall in front of the pick up, even though I could have parked it right in the middle of the floor. There was plenty of space. Then I went in the main house through a side door. I found mom dosing off in a chair in the living room. From the looks of it she had just cleaned up after dinner and was just resting. I didn't want to wake her so I snuck out. I noticed through a window that the stable doors were open, so I headed there to close them up. Mom didn't like them being open when nobody was there. Perhaps she was getting forgetful as she was getting older?

There was music coming from the stables. I didn't hear it at first because of the rain, but as I was standing in the doorway it was kind of loud. All of the stalls were open and I heard singing from one of them. I guess Jamie was cleaning  them while the horses were out in the pasture. I looked into the stall where all the noise was coming from. Last time I saw her was over ten years ago, when I packed my bags and left. I was seventeen and she was nine. She turned twenty two months ago. Mom told me that Jamie would have invited me to her party, but she didn't dare to. Mom would have invited me for her, had she known in advance that Jamie wanted me there. I couldn't figure out though why she woould want me there. We were practically strangers these days. Looking at her I realized just how long I had been gone. Whenever mom mentioned Jamie I would get a picture in my head. A little girl with blonde fuzzy hair, short dungarees with scratches all over her legs and hand me down boots. She was the youngest of five, with four older brothers, and she always wore their old clothes. She still looked kind of the same, but completely different. I think my head short circuited there for a while, because I gazed upon her for more than a minute. My plan was to announce myself and say hi, but nothing came out of my mouth. She had obviously learned to care for herself. Just as blonde, but no mess. Just straight hair put up in a ponytail right on the back of her head. She was wearing regular dungarees, but these were not hand me downs... They were definitley sewn to fit a female body, because they fit her perfectly, or perhaps they were a size too small. The fabric was bulging and I could see her body working under there. Every muscle was tense under there, and if the room had been more quiet I would have heard the seems creaking, I was sure about it. Her upper body was glistening with sweat, and the shoulderstraps were digging into her skin. From what I could see her upper body was just as toned as her legs. She was as hard worker, and I remembered myself doing these exact same chores when I was still living here, and I knew it was tough. I caught a glimpse through the side of the dungarees and saw that she had no clothes on her upper body, which made sense. The air was warm and humid, and she didn't have to worry about burning her skin in here. In fact she could have worked naked and I would understand her. Thinking a little bit too much about it I started to wish I would have walked in to find her nude. Suddenly I felt like I invaded her privacy. That glimpse of skin under her clothes was just an accident and they certainly didn't justify those thoughts. I felt myself blush and I wanted to leave but naturally this was the time she turned around and saw me. I clearly startled her as she did an awkward jerk and stood up straight and frozen.

- "Hello" I said after a bit of awkward silence. I managed to wave to her just as awkwardly.
- "Hi..." She eyed me up and down and looked a bit nervous. I was still in my bike gear so perhaps I looked really out of place in the stables, or perhaps it was the fact that we hadn't seen each other for a very very long time. I even started thinking that she might not recognize me. After all, she was very young when I left.
- "Glowie!" she dropped everything in her hands and threw herself at me, squeezing the air out of my lungs in the biggest hug I've ever gotten.
- "I can't believe you'd still call me that." I said, breaking free from the hug looking her in the eyes. "Are you crying?"
- "Shit... I'm sorry. I promised myself I would be cool when I met you." I almost told her to watch her language just then, but I remembered that she is grown up now, and suddenly I felt very old. "I'll say Chloe instead if you want." she said with a shaky voice as she was wiping her eyes.
- "Glowie is fine. Makes me feel right at home." She called me Glowie ever since her brother tried to write a song about me and he had troubles finding a rhyme for my name. "And don't sweat it, you look cool to me." This time it was my turn to embrace her. "It's been too long."
- "Yeah, well, you only ever come home for funerals and big birthdays it seems." That stung a bit. It shouldn't have, it was a long time ago, but it felt fresh here. One of the troubles with running away from home seems to be that everything still waits for you when you return. But I had to let it slide. I would not let her see that her little comment hurt me.
- "Well, must I do all the work? You could have come to see me."
- "I don't think so. You're all over the place. I never know where you are, plus I wouldn't want to ruin your reputation." She pulled out of the hug and started looking around. Her cheeks were getting a bit red and then she obviously found what she was looking for in another place.
- "How'd you figure that?" I said as she walked past me and into the next stall.
- "Well, you city folk would not want to be seen dragging your dorky little sister from the country now would you?" She picked up her shirt and started to put it on. I found it cute for some reason that she was shy. She was never shy as a kid. She turned her back to me and unhooked the suspenders on her dungarees, and then she started pulling the shirt over her head. She obviously miscalculated the situation because her pants slid down to her ankles as she was fidgeting with her shirt. I got to see her entire backside for a second there, but I decided to turn away and pretend I never saw a thing.
- "Oh come on. We are not that shallow, and there really is no such thing as city folk as a group. Plus people would assume that we were a couple before sisters. We look nothing alike." Oops... you had to be careful about comments like that out here. I tried to move along the conversation quickly. "Besides, country folk is all the rage now. People love to talk about farming and ecological sustainability right now." She came back to the stall, redder than ever and resumed cleaning it with her back turned. Her wardrobe malfunction seemed to be all sorted out. It was a bit strange however that it happened at all. Her pants were skin tight a moment ago and probably had to be peeled off. Looking now however it looked a bit loose. Ugh. I had to stop looking at her like that. It felt degrading.
- "As much as there are no city folk as a group, I have to say we are not as much a group of country folk out here either. I don't know much about farming. I'm a horse trainer."
- "I still bet people would want to talk to you."
- "Of course they would. Who wouldn't want to talk to the girlfriend of the hottest pilot in America?" Now it was my turn to blush again. Seems my little comment didn't go unnoticed.
- "Oh? I thought we were sisters?" She just smiled at me in response. At least she felt comfortable enough to face me again.
- "Want to drive me home when I'm done here?" she asked after a while of silence. "My ride broke down this morning and I didn't have time to fix it, so your mother picked me up."
- "Sure, but I only have a rental bike."
- "I figured as much... You would be dressed really weird otherwise." Amazing how all that time passed and we just found each other again. Conversation was easy with her and we laughed and had fun just like we used to. It felt a bit more equal now for some reason. There was a bit of an age gap still, but it felt less obvious now. Before I left I could get a sense that I was talking over her head sometimes, but now it wasn't like that at all. Not that we got into any deep conversations while she was working, but still.

The rain was still goin when she was done. It was coming down harder than ever and it was getting dark.
- "I got to be honest, I don't feel safe driving you on the bike in this weather."
- "I get that. I wouldn't drive on two wheels in this weather either."
- "I'll go check if mom left the keys in the car. Maybe we can borrow it for a while." I ran out in the rain and got soaked. Well, not entierly since the biker gear is kind of made to not let water in, but my head was not protected without the helmet, so my hair got soaked in just seconds. As I got under the roof the garage I saw Jamie slowly walking towards me under the protection of an umbrella.
- "You ran away before I got to tell you that this was standing right by the door."
- "My gear took the worst for me." I said running my fingers through the hair to get some water out.
- "I can see that..." she was eying me from tip to toe again. "Looks nice and snug."
- "You bet. I had it custom made. I figured that I want the best gear if I have to rely on rental bikes. And it keeps me in shape. Can't get it on otherwise." I got into the car. There was no keys in the ignition. And not under the mat, and not under the sun flaps. Jamie opened the glove compartment, but no luck there either. Ash tray was also empty, which looked a bit off to me. Dad always smoked in the car and the tray used to be full. But mom did not smoke so of course it was empty, even though it looked wrong to me.
- "I'll go ask Bridget if she has the keys. Stay put." Jamie said and disappeared. I felt kind of foolish for sitting in the car and waiting. It was my mother, I should have asked her. And hearing someone refering to my mother by name was also weird. A lot of weirdness tonight. The farm looked the same but at the same time not. All the dad stuff was gone. A lot of the farming equipment as well. Mother just tended to the horses. Someone else was working the fields now. Mother even thought about selling the land and keeping only the stables and the house, but something stopped her. Perhaps it was me. The thought of me coming back and working the lands again. And I even thought it sometimes, because I was a great farmer. I loved it when I was young. But when time came to get serious about life there was another option for me. Even though I was a great farmer, I was an even better pilot at 17. And flying would bring me change, something I desperatly needed after growing up in a town that never changed. Suddenly the car keys landed in my lap and snapped me back to the moment.
- "Neat."
- "Yeah. She was out cold, but I saw them hanging on the hook by the door so I grabbed them. She probably won't mind. Sometimes she lets me have the truck over night when my ride is not cooperating."
- "Let's go then." The car started like it was brand new. It sounded way better than I remembered. Someone was taking better care of it now than when dad owned it. By the smile of my passenger I kind of figured this was her doing. She had always been a tinkerer. "By the way, where do you live now?"

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